A word to the wise about car alarms, etc

[proud2BlibKansan]

A good friend of mine had her house broken into a few weeks ago. One of the things they stole was her spare set of car keys with the remote (keyless entry). So she went to the car dealership the next day and asked for them to put a new ignition in her car. They said oh, all they had to do was reprogram the remote.

She said great. Her car has an anti-theft feature where if it is locked with the remote, and then unlocked with the key, it will not start. The dealership reminded her of this and so she went ahead and just had the remote reprogrammed.

Yesterday morning she got up and her car was gone. No broken glass, no alarm had gone off. So she called the police and told them that her keys and remote had been stolen but she had paid $165 to get the remote reprogrammed. The cops said oh no, that rarely works.

I told my hubby, who knows a bit more about electronics than my friend or I. He said oh no, you can't reprogram those, she should have replaced the whole ignition.

Hope I have helped save someone else some trouble here.

[MrCoffee]

1. Along the same lines...

there was a really good article in Wired last month about how easy it is to steal cars with a transponder in the key, and how hard it is to get insurance to pay a stolen car claim if your car is equipped with this particular "anti-theft" device.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/carkey.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. She didn't have one of those

She just had a keyless entry.

[alarimer]

12. great. I have one of those

But it sounds like the insurance companies are just trying to get out of paying. I mean, when the ignition has obviously damamged by a screwdriver, how hard is it not to conclude that it was STOLEN! Fucking insurance companies- blood-sucking vampires, every one of them.

[SacredCow]

15. Oh, yeah- I read that one...

I read the whole thing with a big ol' "AS IF!!!" bubble over my head. Since when are electronic security features unhackable???

[skygazer]

2. I don't like those keyless entry systems anyway

Nor do I like electric windows and door locks. It's not because I'm backward and don't believe in "progress" - it's because I think it complicates rather than simplifies things. It gives you one more thing to break down - electronics break down more often than a crank window.

[Momgonepostal]

6. they're not so bad if you can afford to get a new car...

every 2 or three years. They'd probably never break when new. But if you're like me and try to suck every last drop of life out of a car before getting a new one, it is almost a sure but this will happen. My mom had various electronic car windows get stuck, sometimes up but sometimes in the down position. It cost $200-300 every time, to fix those darn stuck windows.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. I have a remote starter on my car and I love it

It is great when the weather is very hot or very cold. I can let my car warm up or cool down and the doors are locked so no one can steal it.

[billyskank]

3. Okay, so the moral is

if your immobiliser transponder is stolen or lost, extreme measures are required.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Replace your ignition

That is what my friend wanted to do in the first place and the dealership talked her out of it.

[billyskank]

11. Strange

to change the ignition would have been more money for them, I'd have thought.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. She was willing to pay for it

[Duer 157099]

4. After reading that Wired article, I think the moral of the story is

to make sure of how your insurance company will handle a theft.

My inclination would be to not have these types of anti-theft devices that the insurance industry has so much faith in that if your car is stolen, they simply don't believe you and won't accept the claim.

Any anti-theft system can be hacked.

[alarimer]

13. With my car, I had no choice

There wasn't a way for me to get a regular key or to get them to remove the anti-theft device. I read the article and it appears this is just an excuse for insurance companies not to pay claims. Same old story really.

[radwriter0555]

5. I wonder if her homeowners insurance would have paid for the

new ignition.. or if her auto insurance would have?

What a total absolute drag....

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. She already filed a claim with her homeowners

to pay for the new remote for her car. I don't know that she has heard back from them yet.